Friday, September 30, 2016

What If: Official Rules

What If is a game. I just made it up, and so the rules are subject to change, based on game-play feedback. This post will be updated when/if rules change, so you can permalink it as the sacrosanct official rules. We'll use Semantic Versioning, you can always be sure if you've got the latest version by looking at the version number at the top and the change log at the bottom of the post.

What If v1.0.0

Objective: Get points by proposing your best answer to any What If scenario, or teaming up with a better answer.
Number of Players: Minimum of 5 is suggested
Age: Any, as long as they can understand the rules and participate. They should be able to talk in a manner which all the other players can understand. Minimum of 8 is suggested.

All turns start with the youngest player, and proceed by increasing age, returning to the youngest after the oldest player's turn (until you want to stop playing).

Anyone can join or leave the game any time, if you want to play that way (decide as a group before you start).

Each player poses a What If scenario, and then the youngest player gives an answer. The youngest player will always answer first, even on their own scenario.

Any What If scenario can be vetoed by any one player objecting.

If your proposed scenario is vetoed, you can keep changing the scenario or proposing new ones until no other player objects.

If a player is being particularly objectionable, all the other players may unanimously agree to skip the player's turn to make a What If scenario.

Any player can ask clarifying questions about the What If scenario before it is accepted.

Once the What If scenario is understood and accepted by all the players, everyone goes around, always starting with the youngest player, and proposes an answer or solution based on What they would do If they were either alone, or were the most responsible person in a group when the What If scenario happens.

As each player's answer turn comes up, they can do one of three things:

Join with any previous player's answer

Propose an improvement to any previous player's answer

Propose a completely new answer

If a player has their answer improved upon, they decide if they accept the improvement, or consider that a completely new answer.

If other people have already joined a player's answer, and that player decides to accept an improvement and join the improved answer, the original answer goes up for grabs; every player who joined it can choose to also follow the original player and join the improved one, or stay with the existing one.

When an answer splits, the youngest player left on that answer becomes the new owner.

Once the current player is finished deciding if their answer is new or and improvement, everyone has the option to join any given answer, following the same process of deciding who owns the answer if the current owner joins another answer.

After the oldest player finishes answering, and every player has finished deciding which answer they want to join, points are awarded based on the number of people on each answer as follows:

Example Game Play

Fiona poses her scenario first, since she's the youngest. Her What If scenario is, "What If you suddenly discovered you can fly one day."

Grandma objects, because she says that's too boring.

So Fiona changes her What If scenario to, "What If you suddenly discovered you can fly one day, but slowly and not very well."

Nobody objects.

Pepper asks if flying is risky, and Fiona says, "Yes, it is risky. You sometimes have a hard time controlling it, and you could fall really hard and maybe die. It's similar to riding a motor cycle."

The scenario is accepted, and answers will be given in order starting with Fiona, as they always will. Fiona is always first in this group.

The turns go like this

Fiona:

Fiona would carefully practice and try to get better at it.

Pepper

Pepper would only do it to a hovering height

Lily

Lily would join Fiona's answer

Pepper and Fiona stay with their current answers

Dad

I would improve Fiona's answer by adding motorcycling leathers and helmet.

Fiona accepts Dad's improvement.

Lily is now the youngest on Fiona's answer, so she owns it

Lily decides to join Fiona, moving to Dad's answer.

Grandma

Grandma would improve Pepper's answer by adding a cool witch outfit.

Pepper accepts Grandma's improvement.

Fiona and Lily join Grandma's answer.

Dad complains loudly about it, but still loses the round.

Points are tallied on the two remaining answers

Dad's answer:

Dad 1 person x 2 points = 2 points total

Grandma's answer:

Grandma 4 people x 2 points = 8 points total

Lily 4 people x 1 point = 4 points total

Pepper 4 people x 1 point = 4 points total

Fiona 4 people x 1 point = 4 points total

The points are tallied, and then everything starts from step 3, but with Pepper proposing the What If now. Turns proceed in order until everyone gets a turn to propose a scenario, and then everyone decides if they want to go another round.